In general, a refrigerator is an apparatus that stores food and the like refrigerated or frozen by keeping a storage compartment defined in the refrigerator at a predetermined temperature using a refrigeration cycle consisting of a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator. Such a refrigerator generally includes a freezing compartment in which food or beverages are kept frozen and a refrigerating compartment in which food or beverages are kept at a low temperature.
Refrigerators may be classified based on positions of the freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment. For example, refrigerators may be classified into a top mount type refrigerator in which the freezing compartment is located above the refrigerating compartment, a bottom freezer type refrigerator in which the freezing compartment is located below the refrigerating compartment and a side by side type refrigerator in which the freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment are left and right compartments divided by a partition.
The freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment are defined in a cabinet that forms an external appearance of the refrigerator and are selectively opened or closed by a freezing compartment door and a refrigerating compartment door respectively. The freezing compartment door and the refrigerating compartment door are pivotally rotatably coupled to the freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment which have open front sides. Each door is provided with a gasket for hermetic sealing of the interior of the storage compartment.
In recent years, refrigerators to satisfy various consumer demands and to prevent loss of cold air caused by frequent door opening/closing have been proposed. For example, as disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2010-0130508 filed and published by the applicant of the present invention, a refrigerator, which includes an extra storage space (hereinafter referred to as “auxiliary storage compartment” for convenience) in addition to a main storage compartment and allows a user to access the auxiliary storage compartment without opening a door of the refrigerator, has been proposed.
In the refrigerator as described above, it is necessary to install gaskets between the cabinet and the auxiliary storage compartment and between the refrigerating compartment door and the auxiliary storage compartment, in order to prevent leakage of cold air. For this reason, there is a need for installation of hot wires to prevent dew formation due to a temperature difference around the gaskets, which is disadvantageous in terms of refrigerator power consumption.
To solve the above-described problem, as disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2011-0040567 that is another patent application of the applicant of the present invention, a refrigerator in which a container having an auxiliary storage compartment is received at a given position within a main storage compartment of the refrigerator, i.e. a cabinet and only a single door is used has been proposed. However, providing the auxiliary storage compartment received within the cabinet has several problems that must be basically solved.
For example, in the case of the auxiliary storage compartment received within the main storage compartment of the refrigerator, i.e. the cabinet in a closed state of the refrigerator door, a body thereof is conventionally configured so as to be filled with an insulator, thus having a relatively large volume. The large volume of the body problematically causes corresponding reduction in the volume of an auxiliary storage region, i.e. a space for storage of food.
In addition, in the case in which the main storage compartment of the refrigerator is opened or closed by the single door, when attempting to open the large volume of the body received within the cabinet along with the refrigerator door or independently of the refrigerator door, interference between the body of the auxiliary storage compartment and an inner surface of the cabinet facing the body may occur, which may cause problematic separation and opening of the body from the cabinet.
Meanwhile, to evade the above-described problem, in the case in which the body of the auxiliary storage compartment must have a reduced volume, great load may be applied to the auxiliary storage compartment when food is placed in the auxiliary storage compartment. There is a requirement for technologies to prevent sagging of the auxiliary storage compartment despite the load of the auxiliary storage compartment.